Journalist Charles Watts has claimed that touted Arsenal transfer target Declan Rice may be a better alternative to Granit Xhaka rather than Thomas Partey.

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The West Ham United captain is likely to leave this summer as he looks to fulfil his ambition of playing in the Champions League.

Seeing as the Gunners will be playing in that competition next season, and have been linked with Rice for some time now, it feel as though this is one transfer that could happen.

If this move does come to pass, however, there is no certainty on just how Mikel Arteta intends to use the £60k-per-week England midfielder.

Indeed, while discussing Rice on his YouTube channel, Watts enthused about the "fantastic" transfer but accepted that he wasn't sure what his ideal role would be in an Arsenal shirt even after talking to people who know more about the player.

He said: “Do you bring in someone who either replaces Thomas Partey but certainly competes with him? I'm not sure Declan Rice does that, because I don't really know, when I look at Declan Rice, what's his best position.

"I’ve spoken to people who have seen a lot more of Declan Rice than I have. Look, I don't sit here watching West Ham over and over again. Is Declan Rice an out-and-out defensive midfielder in that Thomas Partey role? I'm not sure.

"Or is he more of a sort of Granit Xhaka-type player? He's certainly more box-to-box than Thomas Partey is. He's certainly more of a threat, I would say, in an attacking point of view, than Thomas Partey is.

"Which makes me think maybe he's more suited in this formation to the sort of left-sided No 8 role, potentially, and would just be more of a box-to-box-type player than potentially Granit Xhaka is, although Xhaka has added that to his game, obviously.

"But I just think it'd be a fantastic signing. I think that would just boost Arsenal so much, bringing in a player like Declan Rice."

How would Declan Rice fit in at Arsenal?

When you look at the players' Premier League heatmaps on Sofascore from this season, you can see that Xhaka tends to operate in a central left area, with a licence to get forward. Partey is much more central, tasked with the duty to cover all the space in the middle of the park.

At West Ham, Rice is a bit closer to Xhaka in terms of positioning on the left but tends to sit a bit deeper – so seems to be a mix of the two Arsenal men.

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With that in mind, if he's able to do a bit of both, then you can see why it would be exciting to add him into the middle of the park for the Gunners.

After all, he would provide great depth if either Partey or Xhaka got injured but can also replace either man as a regular in the starting team.

If Rice does end up in North London, it really will be fascinating to see how Arteta uses the current Iron.